A blood glucose measuring instrument is available which incorporates a voice outputting function for a visually-impaired subject, and so the subject can be notified by voice about blood glucose level data acquired by measurement.
However, an instrument in which a result of a measurement is outputted by voice can be problematic in that, if the subject fails to listen or the like, a suitable decision cannot be carried out. Further, even if the subject can correctly listen to the outputted voice, for example, in order to decide whether the measured blood glucose level is high or low in comparison with a normal blood glucose level of the subject himself or herself, the subject has to rely upon his/her own recollection of voice data listened to in the past, and so it may be difficult to carry out an accurate decision. Particularly, since the blood glucose level varies before and after a meal, a measurement result before a meal and a measurement result after a meal have to be stored individually by the subject himself or herself in order to accurately carry out the decision.
From the foregoing, it is preferable to configure a blood glucose measuring instrument such that it compares a measurement result with regard to a subject (who may have visual impairment) and a predetermined threshold value on the blood glucose measuring instrument and, when it is determined that the measurement result exceeds the threshold value, the measurement result can be outputted by voice together with a voice message representing that the measurement result exceeds the threshold value.
Against this background, in the field of blood glucose measuring instruments, an instrument has been proposed which functions to accumulate blood glucose level data acquired in the past by measurements, calculating appropriate threshold values for individual subjects by calculating an average value or the like and then, when the threshold value is exceeded, notifying the subject of this. Also an instrument has been proposed which can make a more precise decision by setting a threshold value separately for times before and after a meal or for individual time zones.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-159234, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-237688 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-198790 disclose examples of known blood glucose measuring instruments.